Poor economy cuts into ritzy Oscar functions

AWARDS SEASON

Christy Lemire, Associated Press

Published
4:00 am PST, Friday, February 13, 2009

It's a city where perception is reality and image is everything. But Hollywood is having trouble keeping up appearances in the midst of the nation's economic downturn, even during its splashiest, most self-celebratory time: awards season.

Of course, the show must go on. The Academy Awards bring $130 million into Los Angeles, and city economists expect that to be true this year, too. But it's in the ancillary activities - parties, studios' campaigns for Oscar votes, glossy ads in trade publications - where less money is being thrown around.

Even director Danny Boyle, whose "Slumdog Millionaire" is the front-runner to win the best-picture Oscar, acknowledged the awkward paradox of backslapping as the economy slides backward.

"When you read a headline like last week, I read 60,000 jobs lost in a day in America, you just think you've got to be very careful because we live in a very glamorous world, you take lots of photographs, there's lots of smiling asked for and stuff like that," Boyle said backstage after winning the top prize from the Directors Guild of America.

"We're very lucky," he added. "And we're aware of that."

So how does the lavish machinery keep running during such tough financial times?

Longtime events planner Chris Benarroch says smaller parties are the new normal, "not having things for 1,500 people, maybe 100 or 250." Entertaining at home is also becoming a popular option, with studio or agency executives hosting a dinner, for example.

The annual Vanity Fair party on Oscar night will be more intimate, with a smaller guest list - the Sunset Tower Hotel expects about 750 people - and chicken pot pie will be on the menu.

Normally, corporate sponsors help pay for the cost of a party - Cartier co-hosted a Golden Globes viewing and post-party with NBC/Universal, for example. But that money is drying up, too.

"One by one they were like, 'We just can't do it. We just don't have the funds,' " Benarroch said.

The economy is also affecting the way awards campaigns play out in the trade publications, where high-profile ads are a crucial component.

"It would be ridiculous to say it isn't," said Variety president and publisher Neil Stiles. "You can see it in the volume of advertising we're carrying."

Stiles wouldn't say exactly how much Variety's print ad sales are down, but said it's less than 40 percent.